How to Get a Death Certificate in Minnesota
From Everendium · Last reviewed October 15, 2026
This guide covers Minnesota. For the general overview, see Getting Death Certificates: How Many You'll Need and Why.
Quick answer
In Minnesota, certified death certificates are issued by the Minnesota Department of Health's Office of Vital Records and the county vital records offices. A certified copy costs $13, and each additional copy of the same record ordered at the same time costs $6. A death certificate with or without the cause of death costs the same $13 for records from 1997 on. Qualifying veterans' copies for VA purposes are free.
Getting a death certificate is one of the first practical steps after a death in Minnesota, and the details of who issues it and what it costs are specific to Minnesota.
Who issues death certificates in Minnesota?
Certified copies come from the Minnesota Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records and the county vital records offices. In practice, the funeral home usually files the certificate and orders an initial batch of certified copies for you.
How much does a certified copy cost in Minnesota?
A certified copy costs $13, and each additional copy of the same record ordered at the same time costs $6. A death certificate with or without the cause of death costs the same $13 for records from 1997 on. Qualifying veterans’ copies for VA purposes are free.
Who can order a copy in Minnesota?
Minnesota requires a tangible interest in the record. Records from 1997 on are available from any county, deaths from 1908 to 1997 only from the county of death or the Department of Health, and records before 1908 only from the county where the death occurred.
How do I order more copies in Minnesota?
- At a county vital records office: any Minnesota county office can issue copies, usually fastest and often the same day.
- By mail or fax: to the Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, 75 East 7th Place, P.O. Box 64499, St. Paul, MN 55164-0499 (651-201-5970, health.vitalrecords@state.mn.us). The state office has no counter service for vital records.
- Online: through the department’s online ordering.
What else should I know before I order?
You can choose a certificate with or without the cause of death, which matters if you don’t want to share it with every institution.
What should I do next?
Confirm with the funeral home how many copies it is ordering for you, then decide how many more you need; see how many death certificates you need in Minnesota and our general guide to death certificates.
Add this to your Final Day Plan: your Social Security number, birthplace, and parents’ full names - the death certificate application asks for these, and they’re often surprisingly hard for a family to track down under pressure.
Fees and rules change - confirm current details with the Minnesota Department of Health or a county vital records office before you send payment.
Sources
About this review
Everendium Editorial Team · last reviewed October 15, 2026.
Fees, eligibility rules, and ordering options were checked on October 15, 2026 against the state's own published fee information, application forms, and county government pages listed in the sources. Death certificate fees change often, and some official pages were read only as search extracts, so the current fee should be confirmed on the agency's page before paying. Recommended for periodic re-verification. This is general information, not legal advice
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